


Deconstructing Constructive Chaos

by FollowtheLeider



Series: Essays I'm Actually Proud Of [1]
Category: Chaos Walking - Patrick Ness
Genre: Essays, Gen, Honestly it's just me fangirling here, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:34:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27879929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FollowtheLeider/pseuds/FollowtheLeider
Summary: An essay I wrote during Senior year of High School, about a fantastic book and the way the spelling of all things enamored me.
Series: Essays I'm Actually Proud Of [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2041345
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. Deconstructing Constructive Chaos

Words. Spoken, written, thought - words are unavoidable. Yet what is it about words that can color a situation and make sense out of chaos? In _The Knife of Never Letting Go_ , book one in the _Chaos Walking_ trilogy by Patrick Ness, words confront and challenge the protagonist, Todd Hewitt. _The Knife of Never Letting Go_ is set in the “New World,” where settlers from the “Old World” came to begin a new life. However, according to what Todd has been told, the aliens (Spackle) who lived on the planet attacked the settlers. This resulted in war, during which the Spackle released two germs, one that enabled the animals to share their thoughts, and another that killed all of the women and half the men, and also opened up the minds of men to each other. However when Todd and his dog, Manchee, discover a spot of complete silence within the “Noise,” the thoughts of men, near Prentisstown, he learns that everything that he has ever been told has been a horrible lie, and that now he must outrun an army that can hear his every thought.

Throughout the novel the reader cannot help noticing the atrocious spelling of select words. Instead of the correct spelling, Ness chose to spell words phonetically. This imbues a feeling of illiteracy, which complements the seemingly agrarian society in which Todd has been placed, as well as Todd’s inability to read beyond approximately a first grader’s level at the age of twelve. When one combines this knowledge with the way the words are spelled, _direkshuns_ instead of _directions_ for example, it is noted that Todd’s way of spelling, as well as his thinking, is based on a simple phonetical system.

Other words that are unique to the story would be _attenshun_ , _thru_ , _tho_ , _cuz_ , _creachers_ , _semetary_ , _stayshun_ , _selecshun_ , _evolushun_ , _reckernize_ , _serrashuns_ , and _civilizayshun_. Yet when the words are spoken aloud, the words also seem to be written as dialect, mainly with a few hardened vowels and softened consonants. The concept of dialect is reinforced with Ness’s misuse of grammar, chiefly with phrases such as _in danger any worse_ , _tired and tireder_ , as well as _nonreason_ , _a-talking_ , _let ’em_ , and _and’ll_. Ness also uses some words to display meaning that, although similar, are technically wrong to the word that is meant, such as whenever Todd means to say _question_ , he says _asking_ instead. The concept of dialect intertwines with Todd’s illiteracy, creating an atmosphere which displays how Todd perceives the world around him.

In _Patrick Ness’ Writing Tips_ from Booktrust, Ness mentions how he chose to write _The Knife of Never Letting Go_ in first person, present tense, causing all action within the book to happen then and there. This limited Ness’ variety in verbs, so that instead of having Todd “backed up,” Todd is “backing up.” By limiting the style in verbs that he could choose from, Ness added to the ways that he could use grammar to create a specific dialect for the New World.

A further way that Ness manipulates grammar to create the dialect within the book is by is tendency to have Todd’s thoughts become run-on sentences, as well as having Todd repeat various phrases, such as when Todd is forced to choose between a fork in the road. “Maybe our story will turn out differently if we take the left fork, maybe the bad things that are waiting to happen to us won’t happen, maybe there’s happiness at the end of the left fork and warm places with the people who love us and no Noise but no silence either and there’s plenty of food and no one dies and no one dies and no one never never dies” (Ness, 218).

Another way that Ness adds to the dialect is that he uses a few words that have lost their popularity with today’s society, such as _ruddy_ , _slicker_ , _twixt_ , and _gosh_ , as well as a few words that are unique to the culture of New World. Those words would be _Spackle_ for the native aliens to New World, or _spacks_ as they are commonly called, _Cassor_ , which is a type of very large bird native to New World, and _gonk_ , which can be inferred to mean stupid or dummy. By using old words and New World words, Ness thus creates regional dialect for New World, which is depicted in two different scenes in _The Knife of Never Letting Go_.

The first scene is when Todd and his companions meet Wilf, whose way of talking is more drawn out than Todd’s and others from Prentisstown. An example of Wilf’s dialect can be found when Todd first meets Wilf in _Wilf and the Sea of Things_. “They’s all go round carts, but not safe on foot, no. They’s squish ya right up. Ah kin give y’all a ride thrus. If ya want” (Ness, 239). The second scene is when Todd, just recovered from a fever, meets Dr. Snow, whose accent is closer to that of today’s modern society. “Is that Noise I hear? Pleased to finally meet you, Todd. Could you take a deep breath for me? I’m checking if your lungs are clear” (Ness, 355). By developing regional dialect, Ness adds depth to the fact that Todd has come a long way from having never left Prentisstown, to travelling halfway across New World to Haven, where everyone in the series places their hopes.

Yet the use of dialect is not only reserved for the humans in the novel. As aforementioned, the spackle had released a germ that allowed the animals to share their thoughts. However, since they are animals, their thoughts run in short, incomplete phrases, generally constituting of approximately two words. The animals also seem to have their own version of vocabulary, mainly by putting the word _whirler_ before various labels, i.e. _whirler boy_ , _whirler dog_ , and _whirler man_. The use of _whirler_ seems to come from the fact that the humans were not originally from New World, and is how the animals differentiate the settlers from the Spackle. Yet since their sentences are short and incomplete, Ness draws attention to them by using a different font, one that is thicker and less symmetrical.

Ness does not reserve the use of font to just the animals, though. He gives it to various characters to depict what is happening within their Noise, each with their own style of font depending on their personalities. The size of the special fonts changes depending on the current situation happening in the book, generally becoming larger when a character displays fear or anger. This leads to some interesting visual displays of the sentence phrasing, such as when Todd walks through Prentisstown and is barraged by the Noise of its 146 residents.

By changing the fonts, Ness reinforces the existence of Noise, and thus solidifies the setting as well as the plot. The complexity of the plot in this book creates a delicious mess through which the reader must sort his or her way through. By combining dialect, phonetics, misuse of grammar, and visual presentation through various fonts and font sizes, Patrick Ness added a richness to the tone that might have been missed if written in a different style. By writing _The Knife of Never Letting Go_ the way he did, Ness created a novel that seems to breath with a life of its own, with a story that steals one’s imagination and stirs one’s soul.


	2. Works Cited

  * Glass, Nick. "The Knife of Never Letting Go." _TeachingBooks.net_. TeachingBooks.net, 2001. Web. 24 Jan. 2013.
  * Ness, Patrick. "Writing Tips." _Patrick Ness' Writing Tips_. Booktrust, 13 Sept. 2009. Web. 18 Jan. 2013.
  * Ness, Patrick. _The Knife of Never Letting Go_. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2008. Print.




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